What I found instead were many subtle changes. The first being a general scruffiness of the airport staff. I’ve entered and exited Iran through Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport nearly 30 times in the past five years and the physical appearance of its staff has become a barometer of power for me. This time around the looks were dour, the faces more stubbly and the immigration officer’s welcome less inviting, which in Iran translates into “religious people in control.”

I know, you thought religious people have been in control since Khomeini took over almost 30 years ago. That’s true, but over the past few years an overal social relaxation had taken place, making Islam less of a focal point in daily life. I was afraid that the airport was a sign of things to come.

I realized quickly that the reports, as usual, were missing the point.

The real differences wouldn’t become clear to me for a few days. A city wide smoking ban in restaurants and cafes, for example, which is generally considered as a positive step, seems harsh in a city where nearly every other chemical vice is already off limits. A midnight curfew had been imposed on most businesses, in an effort to cut increasing crime levels. Rising prices, most of all, are keeping people at home. In the year and a half since I’d been there the price of a taxi ride from the airport to the center of Tehran went from about four dollars to almost nine.

To top it all off, I couldn’t find many of my old friends. Their cellphones were either turned off or had been sold to someone else. A lot of them had left Iran, going to any country that would take them. Some were in India, one in Malaysia, another in Budapest. One very good friend of mine, I discovered, had gone to study law in Rome. I imagined her enjoying the Mediteranean lifestyle and it made me happy, but one of my favorite cities was suddenly a very lonely place.